Bank of America, Wells Fargo pass self-conducted stress tests

Charlotte-based Bank of America said Friday its capital ratios would exceed the required minimums under a “severely adverse” downturn.
SAUL LOEB
AFP/Getty Images

Charlotte-based Bank of America said Friday its capital ratios would exceed the required minimums under a “severely adverse” downturn.
SAUL LOEB
AFP/Getty Images

Bank of America and Wells Fargo said Friday their capital levels would remain above federal regulatory minimums, as they released the results of their latest self-conducted “stress tests.”

Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, large banks are required to run their own stress tests twice a year, to reveal how the lenders might fare in another economic downturn.

Charlotte-based Bank of America and San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said their capital ratios would exceed the required minimums under a hypothetical “severely adverse” downturn. The banks developed their own downturn scenarios on which the tests were based, and measured the projected impact on their capital ratios through the second quarter of 2017.

On Thursday, Winston-Salem-based BB&T Corp. also reported that its capital levels met minimums in its midyear stress test.

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Banks must report the results of the midyear tests to the Federal Reserve.

The bank-run tests are not the same as the annual stress tests the Fed conducts to determine whether large lenders have enough capital to withstand another dire economic slump. The Fed discloses the results of those tests earlier in the year.

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